Passwords dominate our lives these days; they are part and parcel of spending time online. There are now so many applications, service, devices and websites that require us to log into our secure account using a password that the sheer number of passphrases we have to remember has spiralled completely out of control.

For the best level of security it’s advisable to use a completely different password for each website and service — just off the top of my head I can think of 20 websites that I need to log into (there are probably at least double if I were to sit down and list everything properly); how the heck am I supposed to remember 20 completely unique passwords, each of which comprises a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Oh, and don’t forget… you’re meant to change these passwords every few weeks!

Keeping track of your clients’ usernames, passwords and other important information is a real pain. How can you ensure all of it’s safe and encrypted while still giving you, your team, and your clients access to the information they need? That’s the problem the folks at Forge3 had when working with their clients, so they built the solution. It’s called Safestacks.

Simply put, Safestacks allows you to securely store, manage and share passwords and other important info with your team and clients. Usernames, passwords, expiration dates, domain names, software licenses and just about anything else. You can even set email alerts when important dates are approaching (great for domain name expirations and contract renewals).

You can then add as many accounts your team and clients need, so everyone can get access to exactly the data they need, all of which is live updated from your main account. And, best yet, it’s all backed by their Unlock Code Security™ – meaning that your sensitive info is encrypted using an Unlock Code that only you know. Not even the folks at Safestacks can access it.

Secure Your Data with Safestacks Today!

Safestacks is secure, fast and shareable. You can get started with a free 30-day trial of Safestacks, then customize it with your company’s branding and get your secure data added for your team. Then, if it works for your team, you can keep using it unlimited for just $12/month!

When I come across a site that asks me to login with my Facebook or an app that needs access to my Google details on my Android phone, I just grant the permission and move on. It’s become so common for web properties to ask for these hook-ups to my personal accounts that I and many others like me have stopped even noticing which ones have access any more.

Now, it goes without saying that this isn’t safe, nor is it advisable. Think about it this way: if a bunch of people had the keys to your private locker, wouldn’t you want to know who they were, why they had the keys, and stop them if you feel like?

But most web apps don’t offer an easy way for you to see these permissions and edit their access. These pages are usually tucked away deep in the recesses of your settings. But MyPermissions.org provides a one-stop easy access for all your app allowances, and gives heightened control to Chrome users with the MyPermissions Cleaner. Let’s check it out. (more…)

In a recent report, security consultants with Context Information Security revealed that two thirds of web apps are a security risk when it comes to cross site scripting and one in five risk being attack by SQL interjections. The report also suggests that the average number of vunerabilities is up per web app, offering cause for concern.

There’s so many things you can do from your browser, you could get by quite nicely without any other native apps. The internet is full of amazing web apps, ranging from powerful tools for enterprises to little tools that do one thing great.

While the web apps and sites we love are powered by servers, usually running Linux with Apache, MySQL, and more, our browsers feel more like the “operating system” on which web apps run. We’ve gathered the best tips we can find to help you get the most out of web apps, both from the apps themselves and the browsers you use to access them.

If you’ve hung around Web.AppStorm long enough, you’ve surely come across a few web apps you’ve thought looked nice. Hopefully you found some you kept using, but odds are, you quit using most of them right after you tried them out.

There’s the web apps we use all the time, like Gmail and Facebook, that we can’t imagine not using. Then there’s others we like, say Evernote or Google Reader, that we might like but we tend to use through native apps. And then, there’s the dozens of apps we’ve used but don’t keep using forever.

So what makes a great web app, and why do some seem to click while others never find a place in your toolkit?

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the polls below if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Signsquid. The developer describes Signsquid as the secure and legal way to sign contracts online!
No fax, no printer, no delays!

Signsquid is the only platform that authenticates signatories in two ways—through an identity link sent by email and a unique code given to the signatories by phone. Signsquid is a simple, secure, legally guaranteed platform for signing contracts online.

Cross-checking credit card statements with your receipts is like checking a lottery ticket: you feel like you should do it, but it rarely bears fruit in the end. I can’t recall a single time I’ve ever been able to find a fraudulent transaction on any of my credit card statements. Likewise, I’ve never won the lottery.

And yet, you can bet your last dollar that once the end of the month rolls around I’ll be hunched over my desk, brow furrowed, crosschecking crumpled receipts with crisp bank statements, almost daring some fraudster to have scammed me. I’m already plotting my revenge in anticipation.

BillGuard, a startup having just recieved their second round of funding, aims to stop the loose-cannon cop in all of us by doing the legwork. Think anti-virus for your credit card – only bigger.

If you listen to your grandparents about the “good old days”, you’d think crime was a new phenomena. Back in the day, you could leave your house unlocked, kids could play outside without fear of strangers, and the banker would loan you money on your word and a handshake. Whenever anything bad did happen, a quick call to the sheriff (who already was your best friend) and the bad guy would be locked away, keeping your town a bastion of goodness yet again.

Sadly, that’s not the case today (and if we’d be honest, it wasn’t really that good ever). If you’re a thinking human, you likely keep your doors locked at night, set strong passwords on your devices, and make sure to not give out your ID numbers to shady businesses. You even probably try to use strong passwords, and not reuse the same ones across important accounts (at least we hope!).

Even with all of your preventions, though, you’re never 100% safe. That’s why we were wondering if you’ve ever had your accounts hacked. If you did, we’d love to hear how you got through it, and if you have any tips you can share with the rest of us. We’d love to hope that none of our readers have ever had that happen, but odds are, someone has, sadly.

The cloud can be a dangerous place. Malware can infest your computer, stealing your passwords and more. Hackers can brute-force crack your passwords or use social engineering to get into your accounts. And web app operators can accidentally delete your files, removing years of memories in a click.

We usually assume that the companies that we use services from online can be trusted. But what if your legitimate accounts were closed for no reason. What if Google or Dropbox decided you were breaking their terms of service? Problems like this happen more often than we’d like to admit sometimes, and if you’re not planning ahead, you can end up being caught without your important files with no way to get them back.

That’s not to say the cloud is more dangerous than normal computers on their own. Your laptop’s hard drive could quit working for no apparent reason, and many of us have lost pictures and more from corrupted flash drives and memory cards. To prevent this, though, we usually backup our work and use security software to keep the worst stuff off our computers. We need a similar strategy with the cloud. Let’s look at some commonsense strategies for keeping your data safer, no matter where you store it.